


Can We Live through February?

by Kazzy



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Holly Poly, Minor Character Death, Multi, OT3, new life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 19:05:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1123301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazzy/pseuds/Kazzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>A month after the funeral Elizabeth Weir knocks on Jeannie’s door and says, “I’m sorry for your loss.” </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can We Live through February?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [morgynleri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/gifts).



> This exists in my happy little world of denial where Elizabeth will never, ever die or be turned into a replicator.
> 
> Written for the Holly Poly ficathon. Prompt: Teyla Emmagan/Ellizabeth Weir/Jeannie Miller.

-x-x-x-

A month after the funeral Elizabeth Weir knocks on Jeannie’s door and says, “I’m sorry for your loss.” Jeannie’s parents and brother were never ones for niceties but maybe that’s why Jeannie’s always been so insistent on them. She invites Elizabeth in and offers her a cup of tea.

“I’d like to offer you a job,” Elizabeth says as the tea steeps. Her voice is quiet and firm, her eyes soft. Jeannie looks down at her mug. This is not the first such offer she has had in the last week, alone, as it would seem that Jeannie Miller, widow, is fair game. It is however the first offer she hasn’t turned down flat.

“Does my brother know you’re here?” Meredith had turned up four hours after the car crash and hadn’t left until three days after her husband and daughter were buried (and only because Jeannie had all but physically pushed him out the door).

“He’s the one that recommended you.” Elizabeth folds her hands, resting them on the counter, not having touched her tea. “He worries, but he isn’t wrong when he says you’re the best hire I’ll ever make.”

Jeannie hasn’t touched her own drink but she takes a sip now. “Would I be working for him?”

“Unfortunately.”

For the first time in forever, Jeannie’s lips quirk upward and on the strength of that and that Meredith is the only person she has left in the universe, she accepts a job on Atlantis.

The house sells quickly and she donates most of her furniture to the local woman’s refuge. Meredith’s team turns up to help her empty her home and pack her belongings, a handful to be stored at her brother’s apartment and the rest to go with her to Atlantis. Before she knows it, she’s on a ship that’s traversing the gulf between universes.

Elizabeth greets them as they’re beamed down into the gate room and she and Meredith show Jeannie to her new quarters. Elizabeth leaves them at the door with one last warm greeting to Jeannie. Meredith fusses for several minutes, telling her more than she’ll ever remember about the function of lights and running water and making sure she has everything she needs.

“Mer, I’m fine. I just need a moment to process.” And once he’s gone, she leaves her bag unpacked and stands by the window, taking in her new home. The view, as promised, is as stunning as ever.

She wonders what beautiful words Kaleb would be able to craft to capture the sight. She hears an echo of Maddie’s demand to go swimming. When the tears start, she leans her head on the frame and is startled to feel the faintest of hums underneath her forehead. She pictures a beating heart in the depth of the city and lets the thought comfort her. “Hello,” she says to her new home. And, maybe, just maybe, there is a soft thrum in response.

John Sheppard with his warm smile tells her she can start work immediately. She’s been here before so the orientation is unnecessary but if she wants to learn with the newest recruits and scientists she can. And does she want to be part of a gate team?

The thought of stepping out on to another planet is tempting but she shakes her head. “I’m a physicist not an explorer.” He might be disappointed but he accepts her answer easily enough and hands her over to her brother’s tender mercies.

She finds she enjoys it. The work is challenging and rewarding and no one is doing this for recognition. They’re doing this for the sheer pleasure of knowledge and discovery, to save lives or improve them. The scientists in this city are the best that Earth has to offer and thinks she should be intimidated but she finds her footing in the research with little trouble. She suspects that Meredith saves the best jobs for her (after the ones he takes for himself) which is kinder than she ever expected from her brother.

Atlantis and these people have changed him. He can still be insufferable but the edges of his arrogance have been filed away, leaving a softer person who is closer to the brother she remembers from her early childhood. He’s still an arrogant SOB but she can argue with him now without feeling like she’s being browbeaten, reason with him and even win occasionally.

Like she has in the past she usually eats with Meredith and his team or Elizabeth. Though she now takes her meals with some of the other scientists from time to time. Zelenka in particular makes a colourful, if odd, dinner partner.

Two weeks after her arrival, Teyla knocks on her door. “Elizabeth and I meet most mornings for tea. We wondered if you would like to join us?”

Jeannie agrees, though it means rising an hour earlier every morning. But she finds she enjoys being awake at the early hours when only the skeleton crew that mans the graveyard shift is awake. Both women are so different from herself and from each other, all with different backgrounds and different experiences. The chatter that fills the hour is varied and interesting, stimulating Jeannie’s mornings, brightening them before breakfast and work.

She accepts an invitation to visit New Athos and it’s not her first alien planet but she’s far too new to the experience to be blasé. The Athosians are welcoming and friendly but quietly reserved, much like Teyla. Jeannie has never had much opportunity to travel outside of North America and so finding herself amongst a culture so different – so alien – is both wonderful and overwhelming. She knew intellectually that both Telya and Ronon were from other worlds but the reality hits home on when she finds herself surrounded by these new and incredible people.

The first time that Meredith’s team goes missing ranks up there in Jeannie’s top two worst life experiences. The hours pass with no word from anyone on the team and Elizabeth sits Jeannie in her office and arranges a rescue team. Chuck is just about to dial the address when the gate lights up and John’s voice comes over the comms saying that they were coming in hot and be ready to raise the shield as soon as the puddle jumper is through.

Once she’s sure that everyone aboard is safe and whole, Jeannie goes up to her room, collapses on her bed and cries until Elizabeth comes looking for her.

“I’m sorry,” she hiccups past a tissue.

“You never get used to it.” And Jeannie’s sure that’s right from the darkness she sees in Elizabeth’s eyes. She wonders how many times teams have gone missing only to turn up safe and sound hours later. She wonders how many teams haven’t turned up safe and sound hours later. How many have died for this city? How many will never have their fates known? 

Jeannie decides it’s not worth thinking about. She can’t save lives of the past, but maybe her research will save lives of the future.

When Elizabeth goes missing, Jeannie’s in the depths of Atlantis with Zelenka, three other scientists and two techs. The news doesn’t reach them until they surface for food hours later. By then the leader of Atlantis is safely tucked away in the hospital wing with a concussion and broken arm. Jeannie finds her dozing, fingers interlaced with a grey-faced Teyla’s.

“I am glad you are here. I do not wish to be alone.” Teyla’s voice is even, despite the tightness around her eyes. Her mouth softens when Jeannie squeezes her shoulder and sits beside her. She wakes sometime later, her head on Teyla’s shoulder to find Elizabeth smiling at both of them.

On the day after Jeannie celebrates her first anniversary of being on Atlantis, the three of them go to a world that is seemingly uninhabited, boasting no more danger than a carnivorous tree. They make a picnic beside a lake, on grass a little too blue, spending the afternoon basking in each other’s presence, eating food from other worlds, drinking wine pressed from unnamed fruit.

Jeannie watches the first sun set, pink becoming lavender and back to azure in the light of the second sun. She lies on the blanket as Teyla hums an Athosian song and Elizabeth quietly recounts her first trip to Stargate Command, finding humour in a time that would have been anything but amusing. The moment seeps into her bones and she has not felt this happy, this much at peace, for so very long.

“I would like to kiss you.” Teyla’s voice is as quiet as her song but her words burn through Jeannie like a wild fire.

“I think Elizabeth would have something to say about that.” Jeannie would very much like to kiss either one but not at the expense of the other.

“Not if you kiss me first.” Jeannie supposes that is the answer she needed.

So she kisses Elizabeth first and Teyla second, buoyed by the warmth of the moment. 

-x-x-x-

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the title which is from _February_ by Dar Williams.


End file.
